The 2021 Guide to Facebook Business Manager
Updated: Jan 25, 2021
Learning yet another tool like Facebook Business Manager will make any small business owner groan. You’re short of time and it looks super technical.
But it’s not as hard as it looks, and offers valuable marketing opportunities. So how does it work?
Let us break it down for you and how you can easily use Facebook Business Manager for your brand in 2021.
What is Facebook Business Manager?
Facebook defines their Business Manager as:
“...allowing advertisers to manage their marketing efforts in one place and share access to assets across their team, partner agencies and vendors.”
So what does that mean for you? It means that you can manage everything on Facebook for your business in one place: posting, adverts, team members etc.
Why Use Facebook Business Manager?
As with any business plan, you want to grow and be able to have systems in place that allow you to scale your business easily.
Having Facebook Business Manager does just that.
Once you’re set up, it’s also a lot easier to manage anything for your business in one place.
How to Set Up Facebook Business Manager
If Facebook Business Manager is new to you, then it’s most likely that you haven’t set this up already.
It’s very simple to set-up. Just follow our instructions below:
Step 1. Create a Facebook Business Manager account.
The first step is to actually create a Facebook Business Manager account.
You can do this by visiting business.facebook.com and select the large blue button in the top right corner labelled “Create Account”.
If you have a Facebook account, it will prompt you to log in.
It will then ask you to enter your business name - and this needs to be the same as the public name of your business.
Enter in your name and your business email address.
It will then ask for your business details: location, phone number and website.
Then choose your business use, either:
Promote its own goods and services - if you’re promoting your own business.
Provide services to other businesses - if you’re an agency going to manage other businesses accounts.
Once you submit this, you will receive an email to confirm your business email.
You’ve created your account! Next step is to connect your business assets to your manager. Let’s get started!
Step 2. Add your Facebook business page(s)
When it comes to this step, you have an option to either add an existing page or create a new one.
However, if you are using Facebook to manage other businesses accounts, this is where you request access.
It’s important here that if you’re going to be managing other Facebook pages and Ads accounts, that you don’t directly add it to your Business Manager.
Instead, you need to “Request Access” instead. You don’t want to limit a client’s access to their own assets on Facebook, which will happen if you add them directly.
If you want to add your existing Facebook page, here’s what to do:
In your Business Manager dashboard, select “Add Page”.
Then, enter the name of your business page and select your business from the drop down menu. (You must have admin access to be approved instantly. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait for an admin to approve.)
If you have more than one page, repeat the same process until you’ve added them all to your Business Manager.
Step 3. Add your Facebook ad account(s)
A really important detail to note here is that when you add an ad account to your Business Manager, you can’t remove it.
Why is this important? Again, if you’re just managing on behalf of a client, you’re going to need to just “Request Access”.
If you already have an existing ad account, here’s how to link it:
In the Business Manager dashboard, select “Add Ad Account”.
Enter your Ad account ID (this can be found in your Ads Manager).
If you don’t have an ad account and want to run ad campaigns, you’ll need to create a new ad account:
In the Business Manager dashboard, select “Add Ad Account”.
Then select “Create Account”.
Enter your account details: ad account name, time zone and currency.
Select that you’re using the account for your own business and click “Create”.
It’s important to remember that a business can only create one Facebook advertising account initially. Once you’ve spent some revenue on advertising, Facebook will give you permission to create more ad accounts.
Step 4: Add people to help you manage your Facebook assets
Managing your Facebook marketing for your business can be a tough job on your own.
The beauty of Business Manager is that it allows you to give an agency or employees access to your pages so they can help.
You never have to worry about someone having access to your personal Facebook or information. Or about ex-employees having access.
To add team members to your business:
In your Business Manager dashboard, select “Add People”.
Enter the business email address of the person you want to add.
Select whether you want to give them “Employee Access” or “Admin Access” (it’s recommended to give team members “Employee Access”).
On the next page, select which pages you want to give them access to. Here you can also decide what kind of access the team member will get by toggling the various options.
Don’t forget to also give them access to your Ad account by selecting “Ad Accounts” on the left hand menu.
Once you’ve selected the different assets you want to give access to, just select “Invite”.
If you want to add any more team members, just go through the same process again. For an employee’s access to begin, they will need to accept your invitation. It isn’t automatically given.
You may need to remind them that they’ll be receiving an email and must follow the steps within to activate their access.
As we mentioned earlier about ex-employees, you’re also going to need to know how to remove team members if they leave your business.
In your Business Manager dashboard, select “Business Settings”.
On the left side menu, select “People”.
Select the person whose permissions you want to adjust. If you just want to remove them, select “Remove”.
Step 5: Connect your business partners or ad agency
If you’re hiring an agency to manage your accounts, it’s a slightly different process for getting them onboarded.
In your Business Manager dashboard, select “Business Settings”.
On the left side menu, select “Partners”.
There are two options here and you’ll want to select “Partner to share assets with”.
The partner you want to add needs to share their Business Manager ID with you to complete this. (They can find their ID in the Business Info, under Business Settings).
Type in their ID and select “Add”.
One of the great aspects of adding partners this way is that you don’t have to add individual people. You just add the agency and then they can add anyone on their team.
Step 6: Add your Instagram account
If you’re also on Instagram, you can add your account to Business Manager as well.
In your Business Manager dashboard, select “Business Settings”.
On the left side menu, select “Instagram Accounts”.
You’ll then be prompted to log in so enter in your Instagram business account details.